Dave Eggers, "What It Means When A Crowd In A Faraway Nation Takes A Soldier Representing Your Own Nation, Shoots Him, Drags Him From His Vehicle,…

A guy tries to deal with feelings of frustration and powerlessness upon seeing the above on the news.

(from How We Are Hungry)

Longest title in I Read A Short Story Today history, and one of the shortest stories, too. Won’t even fit in the space normally reserved for authors and titles. Does this bug me? Do I find it pretentious or precocious or prehensile? No. But then, you are reading the blog of a guy who has seen They Might Be Giants more than 20 times. Their band name is long. They have some short songs. I like ‘em. This story, this part-of-a-day-in-the-life tale of a consummate American is interesting and thoughtful — particularly because a longer story about this would be grinding, reducing the reader to power when granola would do. Essentially, the title is the premise, which is what poems are doing when they say “On Pears” or “About Aeolian Mayo” or “Concerning the Arson of My Ice House.”Read the story here. It’ll only take you three minutes. Two if you don’t read the title.They Might Be Giants, “Minimum Wage”